title: Emerging problems of heart failure practice in Japanese women: lessons from the CHART study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) is poor in both men and women. However, the characteristics of, and effective treatment strategy for, female CHF patients still remain unclear. This study was designed to evaluate the prognosis and characteristics of female patients in a CHF cohort termed the Chronic Heart Failure Analysis and Registry in the Tohoku District.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 1,278 patients registered in the cohort, the study population comprised 1,166 symptomatic CHF patients with sufficient data. As compared with male patients, female patients were more likely to be older, have preserved systolic function and non-ischemic etiology of CHF, and underuse standard CHF medications. Although a previous study showed that sex-difference was not a significant prognostic factor in CHF patients, the unadjusted survival analysis revealed an increased event rate in female patients in the present study. Multivariate analysis revealed that older age, diabetes, ventricular tachycardia and anemia were significant prognostic risks in both men and women with CHF.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Female sex had a significant link with elderly CHF patients. Given the explosive increase in elderly patients in Westernized countries, further studies are needed to elucidate the evidence for treatment of female CHF patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Evidence-based Cardiovascular Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan. nshiba@cardio.med.tohoku.ac.jp
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shiba
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nochioka
authors.forename: Haruka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsuki
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tada
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kagaya
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shimokawa
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000740:Anemia / Q000150:complications; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002309:Cardiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002908:Chronic Disease; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000628:therapy; D004363:Drug Utilization; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016387:Women's Health
chemical_list: D002317:Cardiovascular Agents